Falkirk 2-4 Raith Rovers

Mark Stewart returned to haunt his old club Falkirk by scoring twice to help Raith Rovers claim their fifth league win of the season.

Iain Davidson gave Raith the lead with a close range strike but within 60 seconds John Baird took advantage of poor defending to equalise.

Stewart headed his first then set up Declan McManus to make it 3-1.

Substitute Lee Miller pulled one back with another header, but two minutes later Stewart netted Rovers fourth.

The visitors came close to scoring twice in the first minute. Stewart got in behind David McCracken and fired a low shot which was turned round the post by Danny Rogers.

From the resultant corner Rogers had to react quickly to make another fine save by turning Jean Yves M'Voto's header from Bobby Barr's delivery over the bar.

Raith's early pressure paid off when they home side failed to deal with another corner kick and Davidson pounced with a left foot strike six yards out to put them in front.

But that lead was short lived as the Bairns equalised within a minute following a breakdown in communication in the Raith defence.

Baird punished indecision from goalkeeper Kevin Cuthbert and M'Voto by stepping between them before turning the ball into the net.

The home side should have been in front just before the half hour mark but a glaring miss from Kerr six yards out after being set up by Bob McHugh meant it remained level.

The goal was empty and somehow the experienced midfielder managed to screw his shot wide of the right hand post.

That miss proved costly as Raith regained the lead before the interval with Stewart scoring with a close range header for his third goal of the season.

The early drama in the second half saw the Falkirk manager Peter Houston sent to the stand by referee Barry Cook.

It happened just as the official was having words with the Raith boss Gary Locke. Houston seemed to intervene and tell Cook just to get on with the game, but instead he pointed for the Bairns boss to make his way to the stand.

As Falkirk sought an equaliser, substitute James Craigen blasted a shot goal-bound but Kyle Benedictus bravely put his body on the line with a good block.

Rovers then went 3-1 in front as Stewart turned provider with a neat cutback from the right bye line for McManus to convert.

The Bairns battled away and managed to reduce the deficit again when substitute Miller rose highest to head home.

But two minutes later Stewart claimed his second of the afternoon and Raith's fourth as he rounded Rogers to regain their two goal advantage and clinch the Kirkcaldy side's second away league win of the campaign.

Reaction

Raith Rovers manager Gary Locke: "I thought it was a really collective team performance. You come to Falkirk and score four goals is certainly not easy, but I felt that was the best we've played for a few weeks. Everybody was at it and I'm delighted with the three points.

"We came out the traps well and I thought that set the tone for the whole performance.

"I'm delighted for Mark Stewart (with his two goals) because he's had a frustrating time of it with a few niggling injuries and we've not been able to get him up and running. But he's trained for the last four or five weeks and played a few games and he was the right type of player to put in today."

Falkirk assistant coach James McDonaugh: "As good as we were last week (against Dunfermline) we never did well today at all and you can't legislate for some of the mistakes we made.

"We were just below what we would expect from ourselves today. We felt we didn't start well enough and we got to half time being 2-1 down and we highlighted where we were going wrong.

"I thought we got on the front foot in the second half but we just never shut the back door. We'll hopefully learn from our mistakes and move on to next week."